DID GAY SEX SHOCKER HASTEN POPE’s EXIT?

Explosive new reports about a secret confidential report about a gay network of malfeasance sends shudders up the Holy See’s spine in wake of POPE BENEDICT XVI’s resignation.

The Vatican on Saturday slammed explosive media reports that Pope Benedict XVI resigned after seeing a bombshell internal report about a gay network and financial misdeeds within the Holy See, RadarOnline reported.

.But in the latest shocking development in the sex and money scandal rocking the Catholic Church, a spokesman for the Vatican has NOT denied the contents of the report or claim that the report itself doesn’t exist.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the Pope asked three cardinals to investigate the Vatican last year after his butler stole confidential papal correspondence.

The Italo tab said the investigators uncovered an underground Vatican gay network whose members allegedly organized sexual meetings in various locations, including an Italian villa, a Roman sauna, and a beauty salon inside the Vatican.

According to the newspaper, the 300 page dossier concluded the meetings put Vatican officials in compromising positions that could have left them vulnerable to blackmail.

And the scandal has put a new light on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, 85, who shocked Catholics worldwide around the world when he became the first Pope in 600 years to resign, announcing on Feb. 11 that he would step down because of “lack of strength of mind and body.”

But La Repubblica is strident, claiming Benedict decided to step down after receiving the incendiary report on Dec. 17.

Ignazio Ingrao speculated in the weekly Italian magazine Panorama, “The Pope was no stranger to the intrigues, but he probably did not know…there was such intricate chains of personal interests and unmentionable relationships” in the Vatican.